Pyongyang Day 4: Marching in Step

fealty:  the fidelity of a vassal or feudal tenant to his lord
 
I thought that I would celebrate my 730th blip by catching up on my North Korean blips.  Thank you everyone for your comments, stars and hearts over the months.  Always much appreciated.

I've reached 730 but not in a continuous sequence.  Rather, I posted 400 in a row (and was particularly pleased to complete a continuous year), then took a break to recharge myself, and have been back blipping for a few months.
 
Selecting today’s blip has probably been my most challenging selection since I started posting on BlipFoto.  I took over a thousand images on this day.  Sorting them out and ultimately selecting a single image (plus a few extras) has taken several attempts over several months and with many distractions.  I have also added some of my writing (below) with a few more insights to follow (will post on a future blip)
 
The image is of people at a parade rehearsal moving across Kim Il Sung Square in Pyongyang.  It's a somewhat fortuitous shot (we were not expecting to come across the rehearsal) and was taken from the balcony of the Grand Peoples’ Reading House in Pyongyang.  I think the image is representative of so much of what one sees and feels in the DPRK: fealty to the Kim dynasty and an entire nation compliant. 
 
Prior to being led out on to the balcony (which offers a fabulous view over the city), we were treated to a tour of the building.  There is a grand statue of Kim il Sung in the reception hall, seated in the fashion of the Lincoln Memorial and lit in soft tones of maroon and pink (the North Koreans are in a class of their own when it comes to lighting).  There’s a sign on the second floor pointing left (ironically) to “Revolutionary Materials”.  We instead turned right to visit the audio room.  We were also shown the automated book retrieval system, which is similar to a dumb-waiter system common in old restaurants.  The first book that came clattering out of the conveyor was “The Complete Encyclopedia of Raising Chickens”.  The lady in the small bookstore on the top floor greeted us warmly.  I picked up a copy of “North Korea:  Top 100 Achievements” but turned down her offer of “Kim Jong-Il: The Great Man”.  After 4 days in North Korea I felt I already knew the plot..
 
The balcony faces Kim il Sung Square and looks on to the Juche monument on the other side of the Taedong River.  Workmen are busy installing a red sweeping flag structure at the far end of the square. To the left are the new high-rise residential buildings; to the right the grey edifices of the Ministry of Agitation and Propaganda.  In the foreground it’s back in 1984 as large formations of what seem to be office workers march back and forth repetitively.  Each time they pass the podium they erupt in classic communist enthusiasm, shouting and waving flags and artificial flower bouquets.  There is a steady flow of people arriving in formations from the direction of the city center.  It’s Practice Night in Pyongyang.
 
Earlier today, we drove up the “Youth Hero Motorway” from Nampo to Pyongyang.  The highway is 10 lanes wide, uneven and pot-holed.  And empty.  Nampo is a rather drab and dilapidated port city (pop. 400,000) with the brightest colors being the propaganda posters and a brand new set of bronze statues of the Leaders on a main square (there are posters even in the fields on the farms).  We asked to stop at the square on our way out of the city.  However, being an unscheduled stop our guide had to phone someone to ask permission to allow us to do so.  As a group we had once again to buy the obligatory 'five-euro' bunch of flowers and then go forward in a line abreast, and bow to the statues.  This was our 4th or 5th bowing so the group was getting adept at it and once again it was an ostensibly serious and solemn procedure.  There was piped music playing in the background and a man present who kept the site tidy and collected the money for the flowers (I wondered how often the flowers were recycled, bless him).  On the walk back to the bus we passed a group of old men, probably pensioners, sitting in traditional crouched fashion outside a building.  They smiled widely showing almost wider gaps in their teeth and waved back enthusiastically when we greeted them – this was one of only a few times that we had a reaction from the public.  It seemed apparent that the local people are warned not to engage with visitors as it was almost never that we got as much as even eye contact.  I imagined those old guys in Nampo were probably beyond the stage of worrying about any repercussions (see the extra blip).
 
We had spent the previous night at the “Ryonggang Hot Spring Spa Hotel” a resort about 20 km out of Nampo. The resort is a Soviet-style billiards-and-karaoke sanatorium with an air-gun shooting gallery as an added attraction.  It also boasts therapeutically healing properties to its water and claims cures for everything from arthritis to eczema.  The only shortfall was that there was no hot water that night.  Or rather no water at all.  There was electricity sufficient only to power a dim bed lamp.  I could hear a generator running somewhere outside and what flickering light we had was eventually switched off completely at about 11.00 pm.  I had brought along a small flashlight, which came in very handy.  I had after a few days in the relatively bright lights of Pyongyang started to think it was superfluous to requirements.  Welcome to the realities of the rural DPRK.  Fortunately, real power returned early in the morning and we were able to charge camera batteries and other gadgets.   
 
That night our group (or at least those who stayed awake after dinner) was treated to a local version of a clam barbecue.  This was led by our driver Mr. Pak and consisted of laying the clams in a circular pattern on what looked like a metal plough disk, then spraying these with kerosene and setting fire to the arrangement.   The resulting effect was obviously spectacular in the complete darkness around us.  Unsurprisingly, the clams tasted like kerosene.  Drink the vodka Mr. Pak told us, as this would prevent any problems from the shellfish.
 
First stop in the morning was the West Sea Barrage an 8-kilometer long structure completed in 1986 to contain tidal surges up the Taedong River where it enters the Yellow Sea.  The barrage also limits the salinity of the river, which has improved the water supply to Pyongyang and villages along the way and has also opened up the area to irrigated agriculture.  The barrage enables larger ships to navigate the river as far as Pyongyang.
 
North Koreans are very proud of this structure and the guide at the museum located on the barrage reeled off the facts and figures about tons of concrete, days of work, how quickly the job had been completed, and son on.  Kim il Sung was apparently keen to show off this feature to important visitors and one of the more notable ones being Jimmy Carter.
 
Back to the highway.  As I mentioned to Pyongyang it's wide, far wider than it needs to be.  No stopping is allowed says the guide. On the way we come across a large group of women repairing the road.  Most of this seemed to consist of filling potholes with sand, a remedy not likely to last much longer than the first rains.  There were hundreds of women working in this manner and our bus passed through them slowly as the driver had to dodge both people and potholes.  Something struck me as not being completely right about the scene and it eventually dawned on me that these are not typical road workers (often with a characteristic stoop, somewhat hard, sun-burnished faces, the type of weathered clothing they wear, etc).  Rather, these women were distinctly urban and middle class and their clothing and demeanor reflected that.  Maybe they were a group taken out of offices and maybe a manufacturing plant to work on the roads for a few days.  As was usually the case in North Korea, nobody looked at or acknowledged the bus, the guides said nothing and we moved on in an awkward silence.
 
Next stop in this very busy day was further up the empty highway at the “Chongsanri Cooperative Farm”, another routine stop for tour groups.  Once again, we are asked to first pay our respects to a statue of multiple figures off to the side of the entrance.  And once again, yes, it's Kim il Sung pointing the way to a demographically representative group of farm workers.  According to legend, Kim had at one point in the 1960s spent 15 days at this farm apparently showing them what to do.  There is a kiosk selling flowers on the way to the statue and, yes, as we know by now, it's the standard tourist rate of five euros a bunch.  We’re also shown the greenhouse at the farm, rather shabby and nondescript and hard to figure out what they’re actually producing.  However, being the end of the summer, maybe that's understandable.  There is also what appears to be a talent contest going on outside the main farm buildings.  A row of officials in standard grey or brown suits sat watching a procession of singing groups performing on the stairs of the building (see the extra blip).  Everyone ignores us.  We're told there is soon to be an anniversary of the Worker’s Party and they're judging who will be selected to perform.

Later, we are led down into the workers' village to our next guided stop, the kindergarten.  A group of four year olds wait patiently in the yard and become animated as we arrive and one of the teachers starts playing an accordion.  They dance in a circle to what looks like a North Korean version of “Ring a Ring o’ Roses”.  In reality, it is probably another ditty praising the feats of the Leaders.  The children sparkle in the attention they get from the adults but it all looks rehearsed which of course it is.  In a way, their version of marching to an official tune. There will be several tour groups coming through that week to watch this same “come out to play” routine. Afterwards we’re guided through a model kindergarten, colourful chairs and tables and toys and images of ducks and bunnies on the walls.  When the guides lead the group on to another classroom, one of the travellers and I head down the back stairs.  We’re amazed to see murals and photographs depicting war scenes, images of bodies lying in trenches, someone being held with a bayonet to the throat.
 

More to follow .. I will add about about the metro (here are a couple of images in today's extras).